It’s that time of year again when every place you go seems to have bowls of candy available for your children, when holiday parties focus on costumes and sweets, and when your children can go door to door and get baskets full of treats. As excited as your children are, you might find yourself worrying about the sugar and the calories.
Relax, says Science Daily. If you provide your child with healthy food on a regular basis, “having a little fun with candy once a year will not lead to childhood obesity.” This article compares eating candy on Halloween with taking a vacation—not something you should do all of the time, but enjoyable on a short-term basis.
Halloween is also a terrific opportunity to teach your children about moderation, the article continues. Tips for you as a parent include:
- Feel free to remove candies that are especially high in fructose and calories from your children’s baskets.
- Portion out what remains:
- Some for now
- Some for later in the week
- Some frozen for later still
Parents also can encourage children to share their candy with others who didn’t get as much—and it’s an excellent time to reinforce healthy dental habits.
And, whether you agree with these philosophies or prefer your child avoids candy, excellent healthy Halloween snack recipes online can help your child enjoy the holiday. Here are a few healthy Halloween snacks to consider.
1. Carrot Rice Ball
This recipe uses rice and vegetables, not ingredients you normally associate with Halloween treats—but, take a look! Your child might love these pumpkin-shaped snacks. Carrot juice adds the orange color to your rice, with black olives creating the faces and green pepper adding the stem. This is one treat where you’ll find yourself saying, “Sure! Have another.”
2. Veggie Jack-O’-Lantern
Presentation is key. Give your child a handful of carrot sticks and he or she probably won’t see it as a Halloween treat. But if you take baby carrots and use black olives and green veggies to create a jack-o’-lantern platter, then crunching on carrots can become part of a holiday celebration.
3. Candy Corn Substitute
For many kids (adults, too), Halloween means candy corn. And, as Science Daily points out, having a few pieces of this tri-color candy could be a fun way to enjoy Halloween. Here’s another way: This article suggests you layer vanilla yogurt with pineapple juice and then orange juice to create homemade candy corn popsicles. The article also lists plenty more great Halloween-related suggestions. For more ways to celebrate Halloween with candy corn, read our blog post from last October.
4. Frozen Boo-Nana-Pops
By dipping a quarter of a banana into melted white chocolate and then using two milk chocolate chips for the eyes—then freezing the concoction—you can create a spook-tacularly tasty treat.
5. Witch-Hand Popcorn
Pop some popcorn. Take a set of food handler gloves and stick a piece of candy corn at the bottom of each finger to represent fingernails. Fill up the gloves with popcorn, tie off the ends with string. Put a scary spider ring on one finger—and you’ve got a fun Halloween treat!
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